AslansStranger-ARE-epub (2 page)

“No one handles me, sweetheart. If anyone is doling out punishment or pleasure at this party, it’s going to be me. But I’m not. I can’t.”

Can’t. The word seemed distasteful in his mouth.

She tried a different tact, knowing it was probably a long shot though. “Haven’t you ever wanted to be someone else? Put on the clothes of someone else?”

A thoughtful look crossed his face. “On occasion.”

“Haven’t you ever wanted to live in a bit of a fantasy world for a night? With a stranger?”

“Which is me?”

The “duh” went unspoken. Barely.

He said nothing and her shoulders fell. She stood, ready to flee and wallow in a pint of ice cream. “You aren’t interested. I got it. I’ll just let you—”

His fingers slid up her thigh, beneath her dress, making her inhale. Hard. He used the palm on his hand closest to the bar, keeping everyone but them in the dark about what he was doing. Where he was touching her.

The touch was soft but it promised…more.

“Abusing women does not get me off.”

“I never said I wanted you to abuse me.”

“Then what do you call it?” He stood to his full height, staring down at her.

Need raced beneath her flesh and her clit quivered, directly connected to where his hand was kneading the small of her back. Where he was pulling her closer so she could feel exactly what their conversation was doing to him.

“One word changes what you’re describing into what I want.”

“Which is?”

Answering his question would change everything and Aslan knew it. She could leave. She could refuse to own it and convince him she just wanted to have sex. She could play it safe and vanilla and continue to deny what she wanted…what she needed.

Staring into his eyes and seeing the hunger she’d only glimpsed before breaking free, answered her question for her. Denying what she ached for would do no longer.

So she relaxed her shoulders, bit her lip and then leaned forward to whisper in his ear. There was no going back and that was exactly what she craved.

Deep breath
.

“Consent.”

An eternity. That’s how long it took for him to move even a muscle after she’d lobbed the consent bomb in his direction.

Too bad what moved was a vein in his neck, throbbing.

He stared down at her and finally spoke. “Consent. How do you even know what you’re consenting to? I could be an ex-axe-murderer, just looking for the right victim to turn into my next crime scene.”

“Well, you aren’t on the TSA’s No Fly List, or you wouldn’t have gotten on a plane to board the ship. Nor are you an FBI or CIA most wanted, since your passport cleared to embark on the ship.”

“I could just be that good with details and haven’t been caught yet.”

“Umm…I happened to overhear earlier that you lost your room key.”

“That happens to the best of people. Even ex-axe-murderers.”

“For the third time? This trip?”

The corners on his mouth went up. “Could just be my kryptonite. Cruise ship room keys.”

“And your fly’s been down this whole conversation.”

His eyes slowly went to his crotch. And thankfully so did hers. The man must be some kinds of amazing beneath that T-shirt and jeans.

“It’s not down.”

“Nope. But I made ya look.” She couldn’t help but smile at her attempt to ground out some of the energy. “You aren’t an axe-murderer. You help little old ladies in the casino. You toss the ball with college kids in the pool on the Laguna deck. You probably feed the homeless, too, on nights and weekends when you’re home. Bottle-feed baby kittens. Walk on water. I’m sure you’re full of other surprises I don’t know about.”

A full smile brightened his face. “Do you know what one of the sexiest things is?”

She laughed. Couldn’t help it. His happiness was infectious. “Big boobs?”

A chuckle rumbled through him. “I was going to say intelligence, but we could go with your answer.”

“I happened to…like…”

He moved while she was speaking, stopping when his torso warmed her chest and his palm cupped her cheek. “Did I distract you, smart girl?”

Nibbling her lip bought her a few seconds and she decided honesty seemed to be the theme of the night. “Yes. I’ve never been more…distracted.” Her cheeks heated beneath his gaze and it seemed as if he were memorizing her face.

His lips parted and she could see a peek of white teeth. The distance between them had decreased enough that the faint scent of his beer wafted across her nose. “You’re so warm.” She flexed her fingers and they gripped his firm waist. She didn’t even remember touching him. Talk about attracted.

The pad of his thumb moved across her cheekbone and she wanted to purr as goosebumps rose on her arms.

“Are you chilly?” he asked in a whisper as he inched even closer to her mouth.

“Not now,” she answered a moment before his lips touched hers.

His kiss. It was a revelation. One of those moments she’d remember when her time on Earth was done and a lifetime of amazing memories flooded her head. It was that good. It was—perfect.

He didn’t attack her mouth, biting and devouring. No. He tasted her. Sampling and nibbling her lips, slipping his tongue inside. Her moan caught her by surprise and she shivered as his hand moved to the back of her neck to hold her to him.

“Certain you’re not cold? I can feel you shaking.” Amusement lit his eyes as he kissed her again and then stared down at her.

“Do you really not know your appeal? You have to know what you look like. You have to know how unbelievably attractive you are.” Thank you margarita magic. Otherwise, she never would have been able to be so straightforward.

“I’m all right.” He shrugged and then his stubbled jaw brushed her cheek as he whispered in her ear. “I much prefer your curves.” His hand moved down the back of her arm, to her waist and then lower. He moved her body into his, tucking it close so she could feel all of him. What she did to him.

Fuck.

He was hard.

And she really didn’t want to wait any longer. Losing her nerve at this point was not an option. But he spoke first, taking her fate into his wide hands.

“Since you know my kryptonite now, I have a proposal.”

“The room keys?”

“Pesky things. I can go down to the desk and wait to get another and then come back to get you, but I honestly don’t think I can wait that long to take you.” He moved her against him as if they were dancing, and she almost honest to God swooned from feeling how turned on he was.

“I don’t want to wait either.” She grabbed her clutch off the bar and pulled her key card for her room, handing it over to him. “Take mine. Room 312 on the Sunrise deck.”

He took the card, sliding it into his pocket. “On the top deck. Back of the ship. Penthouse suite. Very nice.”

“You know the ship quite well.”

“As I said before. Business and pleasure. It’s a working vacation of sorts.”

“Have you gotten your money’s worth?”

He stared at her and ran the tip of his finger over her bottom lip. “No. But I think I’m about to.” He looked at the bar, eyeing her melting beverage. “Why don’t you give me a five-minute head start and let me get in the proper—frame of mind? You can finish your drink and then follow me up. I’ll leave the door slightly open, so you can get in. Deal?”

The idea of him in the room first, waiting for her when she arrived, totally did it for her. It sounded like something out of a romance novel. A dirty one. The only kind she read. “Negotiation first. Non-negotiable.”

He nodded with a wicked glint to his smirk. “Again. Smart girl. Negotiation first. Then you’re mine.”

She should think more on it, really decide if this was what she wanted to do. Seemed opening a can of worms of this variety was a monumental step in finding herself. And she couldn’t have been more ready to start. “Five minutes. Then I’ll follow you.”

His nod made her truly notice how much bigger he was than her. He could handle her and she knew it. Her panties were completely soaked, just from talking to him and from less than a handful of kisses.

The thought that she was about to get all of him—maybe she needed some Gatorade, instead of her tête-à-tête with Mr. Jose Cuervo.

Zeke grabbed his sunglasses off the bar and nodded at the bartender. “One more thing, Aslan.”

Her eyebrows rose in question, since she had no clue what he was going to say. “Yes?”

“Ditch the panties before you get to the room. I want you bare and wet the second I can get my hands on you.”

“The wet part’s already accomplished,” she mumbled under her breath.

“You don’t have a clue what wet is yet.” He took a step away and eyed her from head to toe again. “But you will. Five minutes.” With one more nod in her direction, he turned and walked away.

He definitely made a lasting impression. She stared after him as he disappeared into the crowd. Quite a few other women eyed him as he moved. How could they not? He was gorgeous.

And she had just given him a key to the room he was going to dominate her in. After she took off her panties—because he told her to.

Didn’t ask her to.

Told her to.

And she couldn’t have been hornier because of it.

Fuck.

She sort of sat, and sort of collapsed onto her bar stool and grabbed her drink.

There wasn’t too much left and thankfully, it hadn’t been huge. The last thing she wanted was to be tipsy when she was with him. She wanted to remember every single moment of what was about to happen between them.

She closed her eyes and thought about what she wanted, and how long she’d wanted it. Taking the reins, at least to start with, to get what she needed had felt amazing and empowering. She was pretty sure she could take over the world.

But that wasn’t what she really wanted.

She wanted to sink to her knees in front of the man making his way to her room and let everything else go.

That was what she wanted.

Needed.

Ached for. For years.

She couldn’t wait. She sucked down the rest of her drink, grabbed her clutch off the bar and giggled as she made her way out and back up the stairs. Mr. Cuervo finished her pep-talk on the way to the room, and, boy did he have a lot to say.

The ship was huge, one of the biggest in the fleet of ships the cruise market had to offer. On the way to the elevator, she caught sight of the name of the ship. It hadn’t even dawned on her how appropriate it was.

The Fantasy of the Seas.

That wasn’t why she’d embarked on the trip, but it had absolutely become her main focus in the past two days as she watched Zeke from afar.

Zeke.

She’d looked up his name earlier in the day to see what it meant. Pathetic, she knew, but she couldn’t help herself when it came to him. Something about him drew her in and she couldn’t walk away.

His name was Hebrew in origin. Then the site went on to describe the meaning.  Strength of G-d.

No “O”.

Apparently, the “O” is always dropped by practicing Jews to prevent others from destroying the name of God. A fascinating occurrence she’d never seen before and her mind wandered for a few moments.

Aslan.

She had a boy’s name. A boy’s name from a book because her mom was so certain she was going to be a boy. When she came out a girl, her mom decided to keep the name, and it had fit her growing up. She’d been such a tomboy for the first dozen years of her life. Then she’d grown up and gotten boobs, and found the mall, and shoes and lingerie.

Panties. Oh, fuck. Her face heated as Zeke’s instructions came back to her.

She stopped at a restroom in the main lobby and took off the black lace garment. “Garment” was probably a misnomer. There wasn’t much actual fabric there. A small triangle and a few strings to hold it all together. Which had already been soaked, before he’d even touched her.

Slipping the panties into her purse, as she exited the stall felt risqué and delicious and naughty and her mind blanked out.

As she took the elevator up and made her way toward her room, the lips of her bare sex slid together.

She tried distracting herself with more thoughts of names and meanings but then she was there, standing outside her suite. The latch at the top of the door was flipped, holding the door open an inch. The crack in the door was so much more than just an empty space.

It was the only thing now standing between her and something she’d wanted for as long as she could remember.

The last chain holding her to a vanilla life.

The last empty thought, telling her what she wanted was wrong.

Less than.

So, all she had to do was push it open.

All she had to do was get her heart out of her throat, free her feet from where they were rooted to the floor and walk inside.

Her stranger waited for her behind the open door.

A tiny moan slipped free of her dry throat and she covered her mouth with her fingers.

She could turn and run, go back to the safety in numbers she’d been raised to believe would protect her.

But she didn’t feel safe there surrounded by
normal
people.

Normal. Whatever the hell that was.

So she was determined to find what “safe” meant for her. Being scared wasn’t going to get her there any longer.

Her palm landed on the cold door before she remembered moving.

Before she’d even got the heavy metal open all the way, she gasped. The sight that greeted her would be etched into her long-term memory for as long as she lived. Probably longer.

Her stranger sat on the corner of the bed, facing the door. His torso leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees. His hands threaded together. Waiting for her.

He was shirtless and the muscles rippled from his shoulders, down his chest and over his abs. His biceps stood out and jumped in time to him clasping his hands together. Over and over.

But it wasn’t his body that made her pant. His eyes did that.

His gaze bored into her and she felt his caress across the room. “Close the door but don’t free the latch yet.”